With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Agreement on Extradition between the United States of America and the European Union (EU), signed on June 25, 2003, at Washington, together with 22 bilateral instruments that subsequently were signed between the United States and European Union Member States in order to implement the Agreement with the EU, and an explanatory note that is an integral part of the Agreement. I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, the report of the Department of State with respect to the Agreement and bilateral instruments. The bilateral instruments with three EU Member States, Estonia, Latvia, and Malta, take the form of comprehensive new extradition treaties, and therefore will be submitted individually.

A parallel agreement with the European Union on mutual legal assistance, together with bilateral instruments, will be transmitted to the Senate separately. These two agreements are the first law enforcement agreements concluded between the United States and the European Union. Together they serve to modernize and expand in important respects the law enforcement relationships between the United States and the 25 EU Member States, as well as formalize and strengthen the institutional framework for law enforcement relations between the United States and the European Union itself.

The U.S.-EU Extradition Agreement contains several provisions that should improve the scope and operation of bilateral extra-dition treaties in force between the United States and each EU Member State. For example, it requires replacing outdated lists of extraditable offenses included in 10 older bilateral treaties with the modern "dual criminality" approach, thereby enabling coverage of such newer offenses as money laundering. Another important provision ensures that a U.S. extradition request is not disfavored by an EU Member State that receives a competing request for the person from another Member State pursuant to the newly created European Arrest Warrant. Finally, the Extradition Agreement simplifies procedural requirements for preparing and transmitting extradition documents, easing and speeding the current process.

I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the Agreement and bilateral instruments.